Label:
Cargo Records
Release Date:
13/02/2006

Cherubs' new offering is a slight departure from their spiky, rampant indie-pop, owing more to Echo and the Bunnymen's midpaced melancholia than anything else. Melodic twinkles and sparse basslines give way to a tempest of sulky despair, woebegone vocals carving angry shapes on the twin columns of guitar that hold the whole thing aloft. At least, that's how one imagines they might have designed it on paper.

The reality is, aside from the ghostly intro, which creeps up behind you distractingly before dissolving into Staale Krantz Bruland's glum vocals, 'Paper Cut Moon' is disappointing. It's rather less than the sum of its parts, its melody lacking the necessary stickiness and its obvious influences - Bunnymen, Interpol, a little Smithsian melodrama for good measure - looking down upon it with faint hostility and disinterest. After the defiantly one-dimensional idiot-genius of their debut single 'Hey Bunny' (you remember... one maddening bass/guitar riff pumping away like a grinning, nightmarish Franz - in short, lunatic pop perfection), 'Paper Cut Moon' is something of a let-down, well-crafted but dull.